If you recall, I set a pair of rather hefty goals to be met on September 1st:
- A health goal of losing 20+ pounds
- A financial goal of paying off the remainder of the mortgage
So, how’d I do? Am I now a flyweight with no debts in the world?
Well, no, not quite. Actually, neither goal was met.
I’m still 10+ pounds away from my health goal. But I’m well on the way, and just reset my sticky to read 195 by 12/1. Most days I am successful in keeping 30-60+ minutes of some form of exercise in my routine. I’m also fairly addicted to the tracking provided by my Polar F11 Heart Rate Monitor, which I picked up to allow me to track my progress. I now do goofy crap like seeing how many calories I burn while mowing the lawn or assembling a swing or playing a few rounds of Wii Sports Tennis… 
So while I didn’t meet that goal, I must say I’m feeling a ton better. And have absolutely no doubt about that number being reached!
As for the mortgage, it’s still there, but we’ve been throwing fairly big chunks at it to kill it off rapidly. Honestly, we now have more than enough sitting in our savings account that I could write that check and be done with it if the mood struck me. But a healthy chunk of that account is our emergency fund, and another chunk is quasi-allocated for next year’s taxes. I haven’t taken the time to research exactly what we will be owing tax-wise come next April, so emptying it would come too close to cleaning out that account for my personal risk tolerance. That, and being a Dave Ramsey acolyte, I don’t believe zeroing the mortgage quite qualifies as an emergency! But, that said, once I do hash out what will be going to the taxman, everything above that emergency fund is earmarked for the mortgage. So sometime early next spring may see a mortgage burning party yet. Look for your invitation…
So, do I feel like a failure because I met neither goal? Absolutely not. I’m well on my way to both, and purposely picked timelines that were going to be very difficult to reach in order to stretch myself. Like I’ve said, the trip is often more important than the destination! 
